Do you still keep dried chiles in the fridge? I’d be concerned about the humidity levels.
If you have never been to a chain how do you know it’s not any good? Just because a restaurant is a small independent mom and pop place doesn’t mean it’s good. I’ve had plenty of mediocre meals in small independent restaurants.
The key is managing one’s expectations and thoughtful ordering. Chick fil a and Popeyes make a better chicken sandwich than I have had at 95% of any restaurant version I have had.
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Very true, a random mom & pop place you know nothing about can be an adventure in a not so good way. Bad food, horrible service, and the possibility of getting sick 
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The chow mein is not - in my opinion - substantially different from the “real” NYC Chinatown version. Except it would definitely be called lo mein.
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Too funny, I agree - as I was writing up the description I had started off cataloguing what the older folks found good vs. the younger folks, and had written “lo mein” and not “chow mein” despite what the video said. Because to me it was lo mein.
But then I scrubbed most of my comments down to “some liked, some didn’t” as presented because the whole thing got harder to parse when the grandparents liked a dish but the aunt/mom didn’t.
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The younger people were quicker to sneer, which might indicate that young people, generally, are quicker to sneer. But having seen similar videos about Italian food (might have been an Olive Garden tasting), older people certainly do their share of sneering.
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Jeff Foxworthy joke:
(Relative) “Hey, I hear y’all got a new Italian restaurant in town!”
(Jeff) “Yep. It’s no Olive Garden, but it’s OK!”.
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One of a kind, that.
I usually get the canned ones in adobo sauce, and freeze the remaining peppers in ice cube trays.
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I don’t know if you need to freeze them. I’ve got a couple of small containers each of about a half can of adobe chipotles that are probably a year or more old in the fridge. My motto is, “no mold, no problem”.
Edit - the reason there are “a couple” of containers is because I’m both forgetful and lazy. I opened Can-2 without spending enough time to realize I had remainder of Can-1 still in there. But more seriously, I’ve treated smoked chiles in adobo like this for probably 30 years with rarely a problem, and in those rare instances it was readily apparent mold growth.
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Good to know! I seem to remember mold on one occasion, but maybe I just read about the freezing somewhere.
I also have this one, but haven’t tried it yet.
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I think that Panda Express dishes are like the Chinese food older folks had as kids in the US maybe 30-50 years ago, so they’re ‘OK’ in that way. I’m reading that ‘old’ Cantonese restaurants are disappearing these days, obviously being replaced by many other regional Chinese cuisines that are way more tasty and interesting. Makes sense that Panda isn’t going to be of interest as a ‘true’ representation of Chinese food at this time.
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Panda Express to me, is like food court Chinese food. Just ok in a pinch, although I like a couple of the dishes they offer. Lots of celery, and other cheap filler vegetables. Had one close to where I worked, so it was ok for the occasional take out lunch. Stopped after work for takeaway a couple times too many - H def not a fan.
Oh we used to have many very good regional type Chinese restos up here, but they’re increasingly difficult to find, Schezwan and Hunan too, Cantonese is a real oddity. In their place, Thai, Viet, and teriyaki joints which are ubiquitous.
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I’ve never been to a Panda Express. I have visited a few Hut Hot ‘Mongolian Grill’ restaurants. They were okay, (before the pandemic) but I wouldn’t make a habit of going there. My main concern was food safety and cross contamination of the ‘build your own bowl’ assembly line.
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When I grew up in So.Cal. we had a Marie Calendar’s in Marina Del Rey. And while pretty much everything on the menu (other than the pie) was meh, they had one of the best salad bars I have ever seen (both selection and freshness). That was pretty much all I did… with an order of garlic bread and a slice of pie.
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Everything is better with garlic bread and separately, pie. Like butter and sugar in baking…
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The Pappas restaurants are all quite good but pricey and popular to the point of too much crowd noise.
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I use the canned ones, too. Drop one in with some adobo when making mayonnaise!
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Not really. I may have eaten in one at one time or another. Rarely eat fast food
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Nothing.
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